A Sick Paulownia Tree Outside the Window

My next contemporary romance, Summer's Green Tangerines, is already up on my profile. If you're interested, please add it to your favorites~~

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1.

Back when An Yuxing was studying in Wucheng, she used her spoiled-rich-girl temper to pull off two major feats.

First, when she heard her dad was cheating, she openly defied him by dyeing her hair silver.

Second, she turned down her deskmate's confession.

Her deskmate, Xu Yichen, was a quiet, taciturn class monitor at school, a model student in his teachers' eyes and a role model to his classmates. He ranked first in the whole grade on every exam.

But outside school, he was a gloomy delinquent who roamed the night and settled problems with his fists.

They had never had much to do with each other. They minded their own business and treated each other like they were invisible.

Until one afternoon, when the parasol trees at the mouth of the alley had grown thick and shady again, their dappled shadows falling across the ground as the faint, sweet scent of locust blossoms drifted through the air.

Xu Yichen offered to walk her home.

He was walking ahead of her when he suddenly stopped and, in a completely out-of-the-blue moment, asked An Yuxing if she wanted to be with him?!

An Yuxing: "?"

Being together meant dating.

An Yuxing was immersed in the sorrow of her family's breakup and couldn't accept his affection, so she decisively turned him down.

Then she fled Wucheng and vanished without a trace.

2.

Years later.

It was the height of summer, the evening sun spilling across the stairs as she entered her senior year of high school.

An Yuxing came down from the second floor in a slip dress and saw her dad returning home. Beside him stood a boy with a backpack slung over one shoulder. He was tall and slender, with jet-black hair and fair, clean features, wearing the uniform of No. 1 High School. But his expression was utterly indifferent, his eyes shadowed with gloom, and he seemed impossible to approach.

Her dad introduced him first: "This is from Aunt Xu's family. He's here to tutor you."

"!" An Yuxing stared at him in shock.

Wasn't this... wasn't this her old deskmate, Xu Yichen?!

3.

In An Yuxing's eyes, Xu Yichen was a parasol tree, tall and resilient.

But in places she never knew about, that tree's heart had long been riddled with wounds, weighed down by chronic illness.

She stood dazed outside the iron gates of the medical ward, finally waiting to hear that Xu Yichen was out of danger.

"You once told me that the first relief on the Monument to the People's Heroes depicted the destruction of opium at Humen..."

"You also told me that everyone who comes to a place like this is here to file divorce papers..."

"I've remembered those words for a long time. Today, I'm standing right here to ask you one thing..."

An Yuxing finished in a hoarse voice, then took off her coat, revealing a wedding dress as white as snow.

Her eyes were red-rimmed as she asked in a trembling voice, "Do you... still want to come and marry me?!"

The boy remained silent. After a long while, he dragged his gravely ill body toward her, his steps weak.

His face was deathly pale, and an IV needle was still in his hand, blood drawn back through the entire length of the tube. As if he couldn't feel the pain, he pulled out the needle in his way.

He raised his hand through the railing and gently wiped the tears from the corner of her eye.

"Don't cry. I'll marry you."

[Narcotics Officer X Female Painter]

----[Reading Guide]----

1. Parts 1 and 2 of the blurb are from the school arc (A cool, gloomy boy X a proud rich girl). The main story starts in the city.

2. The female lead is a little rebellious because of her family background.

3. There will be lots of school-day flashbacks. Feel free to skip the middle if you don't want to read them.

4. A little bittersweet, with a happy ending.

Theme: Learn new ideas and strive to be outstanding young people